Potion and Passion
by Joywriter
Summary: In the end of her seventh year, Sheline, a young Slytherin, has a chance to live out her ultimate fantasy with Snape. Set a few years after Harry survives Voldemort’s initial attack, before anyone knows he is still alive. Rated for sexual content.


**Potion and Passion**

**In the end of her seventh year, Sheline, a young Slytherin, has a chance to live out her ultimate fantasy with Snape. Set a few years after Harry survives Voldemort's initial attack, before anyone knows he is still 'alive'.**

**Gets a tad explicit in places, but hopefully remains tasteful.**

**This story never even occurred to me until I realized how attractive Alan Rickman is. **

The smell of jasmine and peppermint filled the air, an odd combination of ethereal bliss and icy energy. Although an unorthodox blend, it was the key that unlocked the success of the mix and won her a rare smile from the Potion's Master. A reward that was surpassed by little else.

She had just finished cleaning her cauldron and workspace after the Potions final when Snape whisked by her and dropped a piece of parchment into her billowing robe pocket. She looked to him expectantly. He only returned an ominous look that clearly said she wasn't to open it until she was safely away from prying eyes. Barely nodding her head in acknowledgement, she returned a few flasks to the store cupboard and left behind a classroom of students still poring over cauldrons containing mixtures closer to mud than the intended outcome.

She darted out of the dungeon and made her way to the Slytherin common room. A private note from Snape? It had never happened before. She moved through the concealed entrance and was relieved to see that, with the exception of a few nervous looking first years, it was empty. She retrieved the note and eagerly unfolded it. She read the cramped handwriting she had come to love.

_Your final detention will occur at 8 o'clock tonight in my office. _

As soon as she read the last word, the parchment burst into flames and vanished.

Tonight.

Her heart raced, accompanied by a slight flush in her face. But what did he mean by 'final detention'? There was still a week left before the students went home for the summer. That was another issue that had been weighing heavy on her mind lately. After she left Hogwarts, when would she see him again? Knowing his secrets and his past as a Death Eater as she did, Sheline knew that having a woman in his life was contradictory to the man Snape really was. She wasn't naïve enough to believe she had even touched the surface when it came to the darkness Snape concealed in his soul, nor did she believe that their contact would continue after her graduation. His capacity for love was unknown, a subject as murky as his past. He had the capacity to impress with his vast knowledge and to charm with his clever wit, but most doubted little else lurked beneath his black eyes.

In the last few weeks before exams, he had often asked her to stay behind after class. Of course, he never put it in such words. He dubbed it 'detention' when in fact they would spend all evening drinking Butterbeer and talking about days and events long since passed. It was during these so-called punishments that she encountered a side of Severus Snape that few know exists. She delighted in her forbidden courtship with the Potions Master, and in hopes of keeping his confidences, told no one of her repeated visits to Snape's dungeon.

It was balmy day, a condition that hadn't reached into the far depths of the castle where Snape spent most of his time, and during the exam, she was sure she had caught of look of loneliness in his eyes that she'd never seen before. Always the most mysterious and most feared of all Hogwarts professors in the past century, no one dared attempt to understand him or see beyond the brutal ruse that was Severus Snape.

He hadn't changed a bit in the seven years Sheline had known him and had she not been in Slytherin house, her time with Snape would have been even more limited and a bond probably wouldn't have been possible. Snape was fiercely proud of the Slytherin legacy, and didn't take well to the students of the other houses without a worthy cause.

Could it be his ebony hair and his rich voice that drew her in? Or maybe it was the mystery in which he was shrouded. Whatever it was, physical or mystical, he aroused in her a fierce and unyielding fire, a desire she had never known.

Still, with all the uncertainty surrounding his life and their future, she had managed to fall for him. And she had at least one more evening with him to herself.

At ten to eight, she began her trek through the empty castle corridors. Potions had been her final exam for the year, yet most students still had one last day of studying before they were free for the summer. Making her way to the dungeons where Snape's office was located, she wondered again why he had called this her 'final detention'. Were her absences arousing suspicion among the faculty? Surely not, she thought. Snape is a brilliant man, and given his innumerable narrow escapes in the past, surely he could explain away the frequent interaction with his most gifted student without missing a beat.

So what was really going on?

She had changed into jeans and a buttoned shirt. The air had cooled considerably and a chill ran down her bare skin. Still, excitement played a larger factor than weather.

As she raised her hand to knock on the door that boasted a jade serpentine 'S', it swung open. Snape was sitting behind his desk in partial darkness, and with a wave of his wand, the door closed and was sealed.

"I don't expect we'll be interrupted tonight," he said, shadows dancing over his features from the fire in the hearth.

He motioned to the seat he had placed in front of his desk as he always did before she arrived on 'detention' nights. She sat down and watched him in fascination as he finished a letter before sending it off with a tawny owl.

"Now, Sheline," he said, placing a quill and a bottle of ink in his desk, "I'd like to inform you that I have taken the initiative to set up interviews for you at the Ministry. You've proven yourself skilled in many areas in which they are currently experiencing a shortage."

"Thank you, Professor."

"Please, call me Severus."

Her heart skipped a beat. He had never asked her to refer to him by his given name before. What could it mean? Surely it was a good sign. Sensing her curiosity, he lost no time in answering.

"Classes are finished and you are now of age, so in private you may abandon the formalities"

"Thank you… Severus."

He smiled subtly, exuding sensuousness in the shifting shadows. Even though she was drawn to his mysteriously dark aura, he was beautiful when he smiled.

Snape conjured two goblets in midair, filled with amber liquid. He took one and handed the other to Sheline.

"Drink up."

She swallowed a mouthful of the deliciously intoxicating liquid. At first she thought it was Butterbeer, but it was something else. Something better. Like liquid pleasure. The warmth moved from her mouth, to her throat, to her stomach, and then on down to secretive places where it settled for a moment. Without intention, her back arched slightly against the chair and a soft sigh drifted past her lips.

She opened her eyes and was about to apologize for her unexpected expression of desire, but stopped short when she saw the grin on Snape's face.

"I suspected you'd enjoy that."

She stared down at the goblet, swirling the liquid within. "What is this?"

"A new potion I have been drafting. Aqueous Arousal. I've yet to assign a proper title to it."

"It's delicious."

"Yes," Snape agreed absently, as he took a drink of the golden liquid and stifled his own reaction to the effect undoubtedly shared by Sheline only moments earlier. "Its only downfall is that the desired effect is fleeting."

As he spoke the words, she realized that he was indeed correct. The eruption of pleasure that had been so powerful had vanished.

"But there is a way to experience that same vivacity without the means of this –" he tilted his goblet slightly, his eyes alive with fire, his words slithering past his thin red lips with ease "- and you'll find that its effects are exceedingly enduring."

With a wave of his wand, the goblets vanished and Snape rounded his desk, his cloak swirling behind him. He extended his hand to Sheline. For a moment, she could only stare at his long slim fingers. She had never known Snape to touch anyone if he could avoid it. Slowly, she placed her hand in his. He slowly drew her into a back room that she had never noticed before, all the while keeping their eyes locked. Their footsteps echoed sharply off the stone walls. Opening a second door, Sheline realized they were in Snape's bedroom, adorned in rich greens and sharp silvers that were easily recognizable in the darkness. The window was open, wafting in the cool evening breeze.

He raised her hand to his lips, imprinting a gentle kiss that left behind a delicate spreading warmth. Suddenly, the feeling she experienced after taking a mouthful of Snape's drink returned with a vengeance, and didn't abate.

He kissed each of her fingers, taking the last one in his warm mouth. After a few moments he released it and pressed his lips against hers. The intensity of the moment left her dizzy. Seven years had been a long time to dream, and an even longer time to wait. But it had been worth it. His pants had become noticeably tight, a fact that they were both now aware of. Thus began a feverish frenzy of unfastening buttons and zippers. Snape cast her shirt aside and took her swollen breasts in his hands, savouring them. There was an intense passion yet perfect precision in his every move.

Kissing her neck, he left no inch of skin untouched. The warm flick of his snakelike tongue left dizzying fires in its wake. She closed her eyes against the rising heat inside her. Her body was his.

She was his.

Casting his cloak aside, she began to unfasten the large buttons that ran down the torso of his suit. Within seconds her pants were on the floor, forgotten along with the rest of their clothes and cares. His pale skin seemed to glow in the moonlight and was marred only by the faint imprint of the Dark Mark that had been seared onto his left forearm. Snape drew her in close to him and they tumbled into an amorous kiss.

With their bodies aching for each other, they made their way to his lofty bed. Drawing apart only for a moment, they settled in the center. Hovering over Sheline for a moment, he kissed her again and she gasped when his forbidden warmth grazed her inner leg.

"Be as expressive as you want," he breathed between kisses. "No one can hear us."

He slowly drew back. His always stern face had softened, if only slightly. Sheline tucked his hair behind his ear, giving her the ability to gaze into the depths of his dark eyes. She could sense a hunger in him that had long gone unsatisfied

"Look at me," he commanded gently. "And don't close your eyes."

He moved slowly. Deliberately. She felt like she was falling as the distance between them vanished, their bodies connected in a way she'd only ever imagined. Sheline grasped Snape's shoulders as he moved gently against her. Filling her. And never looking away from him.

The intensity of searching each other's eyes only served to heighten the magic of the moment. Feverishly eager, and yet never faltering, always gentle. His raven locks flowed with motion of his body. Her fingernails raked his back, his shoulders. Had she not been safely in his arms, she was sure she would fall and totally unsure of where she would land. Never had she dared believe for a moment that she would ever be given this chance.

_Is this for real?_ She wondered ecstatically as she writhed beneath him.

Sweat and warm breath, mystery and forbidden passion danced with them that night. His eyes, for the first time, appeared blue. More human. More real. She sensed a tenderness that couldn't be forged by an incantation. There was a light in his soul, however obscured by past choices and current duties. He may be a cold, detached man by experience, but he was still a man.

Time made fools of them. The stars bid them farewell as they were washed into slumber by the morning light that spilled into the room.

Snape, barely able to keep his eyes open, found repose on a pillow and fell into sleep almost immediately. Endearing, she thought, but a gesture she believed Snape, on some level, would view as weakness.

Sheline kissed his pallid cheek and smiled. Carefully rising from the bed and finding her clothes, she dressed quickly and left the room, looking back only once at her dark lover as she brushed away a tear.

She closed the door gently, yet it still made a terribly hollow sound that reverberated down the corridor. She would be back, no doubt. To say thank you. To say goodbye. But for the moment, there was no need to dwell on those things. She was content to know that there are some things that can't be explained by magic.

And, for now, that was enough.


End file.
